I have a large Cubase Pro 14 session with a video locked to timecode. I have a song written and lined up on a desired timecode. I want to write another song that starts “before that song”, but it needs to be a different tempo.
Issue:: When I change the tempo in a section before any existing songs, it changes the timecode position of all songs that start at later positions. I’m searching for an easier way to have multiple songs in 1 Cubase session with different tempos.
Currently, I have to set the tempo of the “new song”, then on a bar after it ends, I add 2 tempo points and adjust the tempo between the 2 points, until the later song lines back up with the correct timecode position(of course remaining in place on the Bars and Beats grid).
Note:: the video and position marker and cycler marker tracks are locked to timecode in “Linear Mode”. The music tracks are in musical mode and locked to the bars and beats grid.
Is there some way with the “Time Warp function”, “Process Tempo” or some other feature to have Cubase determine what tempo change needs to be on a 1 bar duration so that the timecode positions of the songs starting afterwards remain in the same timecode position? It seem like this should be something that’s possible to calculate.
Hi Raino thanks for the reply! I would do that, but lots of things related to tempo wouldn’t work. Got me thinking though, if I switched the tracks to Linear Mode temporarily, made the tempo adjustments before the song. Then switched them back. I wonder, need to test. I know I could write some sort of macro to do that and trigger with metagrid
Are your music Tracks all Audio or is there MIDI too? I ask because with MIDI it will always shrink & stretch along with Tempo shifts. But with Audio you can turn that behavior on & off by changing the Mode - which gives you some flexibility with Audio over MIDI. So maybe some Rendering to Audio can help. Also you might consider using different Projects, one for your composing using Musical Timebase and another for aligning to the timecode using Linear Timebase.
One approach could be to do each song in its own separate Project. Export those mixes and then use a 3rd Project for aligning things to the timecode.
First way: Just hit that Tempo Track button in the Transport Bar and draw in your tempo changes. Super straightforward - grab the Draw tool, hop into the Tempo Track Editor, and map out your changes. Pro tip: use Step changes for clean cuts between songs!
Second way (this is what I usually do): Work with markers! Drop markers at the start of each song, then jump into the Tempo Track Editor to add your changes. Just make sure to lock those tempo events to your markers and you’re golden.
Some random tips that’ll save you headaches:
Snap is your friend! Keep those tempo changes lined up with your bars
Leave some breathing room between songs (empty bars are your friend)
Arranger Track is super helpful for keeping everything organized
Cycle markers are great for marking different sections
Oh, and whatever you do, don’t use Fixed Tempo mode - it’s just asking for trouble with multiple songs!
Hope this helps! Let me know if you’ve got any questions or if you handle it differently. Always love learning new tricks!
I tried switching the timebase and the tracks do indeed stay locked to timecode, but of course they get thrown way off the bars and beats grid, so no go on that route.
So it’s a typical composing template with hundreds of disabled tracks, both midi and audio. Opening and closing sessions takes time (faster now with Cubase 14, but still) and mixing multiple sessions rather than one is more work.
I have a way that works, but it’s tedious to manually line the song back up and I’m looking for an exact way sort of how snapping works. I typically try to plan out tempo before I begin, but like what just happened, a client wanted more energy in a cue and it really would be easiest to start with a faster tempo. (there are 2 cues after that one that I will have to manually line back up to timecode). There must be a calculation for this???
Thanks for replying! I use most of the those methods and attempt to plan out the tempo changes, before I really start writing music, buuuut there are always changes etc. So I’m looking for a way to get Cubase to Calculate the tempo change needed in a Blank/Silent Bar to keep the later songs at the same timecode position. Maybe Timewarp, Process Tempo etc??? or is there a math equation that could tell me the tempo I need to enter to correct for the offset?
Hmmm, tricky one. You could manually calculate it but I think timewarp is kinda promising.
I’d say if you’re doing timewarp it’s going to be fairly meticulous but less so than the method you described a few comments up + more repeatable. Perhaps you could try it this hybrid method I cooked up:
Anchor the Starting Positions of Later Songs:
Open the Tempo Track from Project > Tempo Track.
Identify the exact timecode where the next song starts. Note this timecode in case you need to verify after adjustments.
Place a Tempo Point on the grid immediately before the section where the next cue begins to lock its current position.
Create a Blank Bar for Tempo Adjustments:
Insert a blank bar in the timeline before the new song. This blank bar will serve as the buffer zone to calculate a precise tempo without affecting subsequent markers.
Use the Tempo Track Editor to add two Tempo Events — one at the start of the blank bar and one at the end.
Determine the Required Tempo for the Blank Bar:
Use Time Warp to align the Bars+Beats grid of the blank bar with the desired timecode timeframe.
I hope at least some of this is useful, at the least to maybe confirm that yeah…this is going to be really annoying to pull of!
Yeah that’s the normal way I do it, but I’m digging to see if there’s a better solution. In the end if a new method saves time that’s what I would do. Just seems like something that the computer could do easily
I stopped that because of the headache of moving things around to the inevitable billionth ‘Director’s Ultimate Edit’ and also, Cubase has too many bugs and multiple cues can be too heavy channel and plugin wise, plus, if a session goes rogue, I could risk losing a lot of work (although I religiously triple save everything) .
So it’s safest and easiest to split the sessions per cues. But, by all means, if you find an easy solution, that would be great!
I gave your challenge a bit of a try and came up with a slightly unusual approach. Let me know if it works for you.
If I understand correctly you have amount x of bars before “that song” and want to turn it into amount y. Not by trial and error but precisely.
Pre-requisite:
Your video track and already existing tracks for marker and songs need to be set to Linear Time Base.
Steps:
create an audio track; put a small audio event on it
right-click the audio event → Events to Part
now put the beginning of the audio part on the starting time code and the end on the ending time code position of your new song
select the part and “bounce selection” in order to turn the entire part into a new audio event; chose to replace
switch the ruler to Bars + Beats and set the locators so that their duration equals the amount of bars you’d like to have;
it doesn’t matter where the locators are, only their duration is important
go to menu Audio → Advanced → Set Tempo from Event. If asked “set global tempo?” click No.
We are using the dummy audio event/part in order to tell Cubase the time code start and end positions of our new song. Unfortunately we need to turn into a part if the audio event is too short in order to get it to proper size. If your dummy audio event is longer than your new song should be, you can just trim it to the correct length and skip steps 2 and 4.
We then use Tempo from Event (works only on audio events/parts) to say how many bars we want to have in the time span.
It is a bit weird but should deliver precise tempo events at the desired points.
Of course, in the end you can delete the audio track from step 1.
No fast solution here. What you want is something like “chunks” in DP.
What *I’ve" alwayds imagined being amazing would be the ability to have multiple timelines starting from 0:00:00 in a session, all using the same instrument rack and midi channels, so that we could easily do what you’re suggesting.
But all the issues you’re running into - including the downsides of hosting instruments in Cubase 14 - are why most of us hardcore film music types still use VE Pro extensively to host as many instruments outside cubase as possible.
So to sum up - there are no ideal solutions here unless Cubase introduces major new features, or if you switch to the one DAW that does this, which is DP.
Correct! I want it to feel as precise as snapping a midi part to cursor.
That’s a really good idea! I’ll definitely try it out. I was using a cycle marker to measure the timecode difference, but didn’t consider set tempo from event. Should have some time to test soon. I’d love to get a solid process down and make a video etc if something really works!
